codeanalyzer-typescript (cants)

A TypeScript/JavaScript static-analysis toolkit — the CLDK backend that emits a canonical symbol table and call graph, as analysis.json or a Neo4j property graph.

cants is a static analyzer for TypeScript/JavaScript built on the TypeScript compiler (via ts-morph). It produces the canonical CodeLLM-DevKit (CLDK) analysis.json — a symbol table plus a resolver-based call graph — and can project that same analysis into a Neo4j property graph. It is the TypeScript backend behind CLDK, mirroring its Python and Java siblings.

By default the call graph is the union of two backends: the TypeScript compiler's resolver and Jelly — a flow-based analyzer that resolves higher-order and callback edges the resolver misses, embedded in the cants binary (no extra install). Merged edges keep a provenance tag (tsc / jelly), so you can still tell the two apart. Pass --tsc-only to drop Jelly and run the resolver alone, or --call-graph-provider jelly for Jelly alone.

• Features
• Installation
  • Prerequisites
  • Install via shell script
  • Install via Homebrew
  • Install via pip (PyPI)
  • Build from source
• Usage
  • Options
  • Examples
• Output targets
  • analysis.json (default)
  • Neo4j graph
  • Schema contract
• Development
• License

• Symbol table — modules, classes, interfaces, enums, type aliases, namespaces, functions, methods, variables, decorators, and JSDoc, with precise source spans.
• Call graph — the TypeScript compiler's resolver plus Rapid Type Analysis (RTA), with phantom (external) nodes for calls into imported libraries and Node builtins.
• Pluggable call-graph backend — the union of the tsc resolver and the embedded Jelly flow analyzer by default (--tsc-only for the resolver alone, --call-graph-provider jelly for Jelly alone).
• Neo4j output — project the analysis into a labeled property graph: a self-contained graph.cypher snapshot, or an incremental push to a live database over Bolt.
• Versioned schema — a machine-readable, version-stamped Neo4j schema contract (--emit schema), bundled in every release and enforced by a conformance test.
• Self-contained binary — no Bun or Node required at runtime; install via pip, Homebrew, or a one-line shell script.
• Incremental — content-hash caching so re-analyzing (and re-loading the graph) only touches what changed.

Running a prebuilt cants binary requires nothing — it is fully self-contained. To analyze a project, that project should be a normal Node/TypeScript project (so the compiler can resolve types and imports). Building cants from source requires Bun 1.0+.

Download and install the prebuilt binary for your platform from the latest release:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/codellm-devkit/codeanalyzer-typescript/releases/latest/download/cants-installer.sh | sh

The installer drops cants into ~/.local/bin (override with CANTS_INSTALL_DIR) and can pin a version with CANTS_VERSION=vX.Y.Z. Supports macOS (arm64/x86_64) and Linux (x86_64/aarch64).

brew install codellm-devkit/homebrew-tap/codeanalyzer-typescript

The wheel bundles the prebuilt, self-contained binary for your platform (no Bun or Node required):

pip install codeanalyzer-typescript
cants --help

This is also the package CLDK's Python SDK depends on to locate the analyzer backend; it exposes codeanalyzer_typescript.bin_path() and schema_path().

# Install Bun, then:
git clone https://github.com/codellm-devkit/codeanalyzer-typescript
cd codeanalyzer-typescript
bun install
bun run build      # → dist/cants (standalone native binary)

You can also run the analyzer directly from source without compiling:

bun run start -- --input /path/to/typescript/project

cants --input /path/to/typescript/project

With no --output, the analysis is printed to stdout as compact JSON; with --output <dir> it is written to analysis.json (or graph.cypher for --emit neo4j) in that directory.

Usage: cants [options]

CLDK TypeScript analyzer — emits the canonical analysis.json (symbol table +
resolver call graph), or a Neo4j graph.

Options:
  -i, --input <path>             project root to analyze (not required for
                                 --emit schema)
  -o, --output <dir>             output directory (omit ⇒ compact output to
                                 stdout)
  --emit <target>                output target: json (analysis.json, default) |
                                 neo4j (graph.cypher or live push) | schema (the
                                 Neo4j schema.json contract) (default: "json")
  --app-name <name>              logical application name for the graph
                                 :Application anchor (default: input dir name)
  --neo4j-uri <uri>              push the graph to a live Neo4j over Bolt
                                 (incremental); omit to write graph.cypher (env:
                                 NEO4J_URI)
  --neo4j-user <user>            Neo4j username (default: "neo4j", env:
                                 NEO4J_USERNAME)
  --neo4j-password <password>    Neo4j password (prefer the env var; a flag is
                                 visible in shell history / process list)
                                 (default: "neo4j", env: NEO4J_PASSWORD)
  --neo4j-database <db>          Neo4j database name (env: NEO4J_DATABASE)
  -a, --analysis-level <n>       analysis depth: 1 = symbol table + tsc resolver
                                 call graph + RTA (default); 2 = call graph
                                 (default: "1")
  -t, --target-files <paths...>  restrict analysis to specific files
                                 (incremental)
  --skip-tests                   skip test trees (default)
  --include-tests                include test trees
  --eager                        force a clean rebuild instead of reusing the
                                 cache
  --lazy                         reuse the cache (default)
  --no-build                     skip dependency materialization (use a prepared
                                 node_modules)
  --no-phantoms                  disable phantom (external) nodes for
                                 imported/required library calls
  --call-graph-provider <name>   call-graph backend: union (default, tsc ∪
                                 jelly) | tsc | jelly | both (deprecated alias
                                 of union) (default: "union")
  --tsc-only                     use the tsc resolver only — opt out of Jelly
                                 edges (overrides --call-graph-provider)
  -c, --cache-dir <dir>          cache/intermediate directory
  -v, --verbose                  increase verbosity (repeatable)
  -h, --help                     display help for command

1. Basic analysis to stdout, or to a file:

   cants --input ./my-ts-project                         # compact JSON on stdout
   cants --input ./my-ts-project --output ./out          # → ./out/analysis.json

2. Emit a Neo4j snapshot, or push to a live database:

   cants --input ./my-ts-project --emit neo4j --output ./out     # → ./out/graph.cypher
   cants --input ./my-ts-project --emit neo4j \
     --neo4j-uri bolt://localhost:7687 --neo4j-user neo4j --neo4j-password secret

3. Incremental analysis of specific files:

   cants --input ./my-ts-project --target-files src/a.ts src/b.ts

4. Resolver-only call graph (opt out of Jelly):

   cants --input ./my-ts-project --tsc-only

5. Force a clean rebuild with a custom cache directory:

   cants --input ./my-ts-project --eager --cache-dir /path/to/custom-cache

cants builds one analysis in memory and can emit it three ways (--emit):

A TSApplication document — the canonical CLDK contract the Python SDK parses:

{
  "symbol_table":     { /* file path → module (classes, interfaces, enums,
                           type aliases, functions, namespaces, variables, …) */ },
  "call_graph":       [ /* CALL_DEP edges: { source, target, type, weight,
                           provenance, tags } keyed by callable signature */ ],
  "external_symbols": { /* phantom stubs for call targets outside the project */ }
}

Caller- and callee-side identifiers come from a single signature canonicalizer, so call-graph source/target values byte-match the corresponding symbol_table / external_symbols keys.

--emit neo4j projects the same analysis into a labeled property graph (declarations keyed by their signature under a shared :Symbol label; calls, imports, inheritance, decorators, and call sites as relationships):

• Without --neo4j-uri — writes a self-contained graph.cypher (constraints + indexes, a scoped wipe, then batched MERGEs). Load it with cypher-shell < graph.cypher.
• With --neo4j-uri — pushes to a live Neo4j over Bolt incrementally: only modules whose content hash changed are rewritten, and on a full run modules whose source file vanished are pruned. Every graph carries a schema_version on its :Application node.

The connection options also read the standard Neo4j environment variables — NEO4J_URI, NEO4J_USERNAME, NEO4J_PASSWORD, NEO4J_DATABASE — when the corresponding flag is omitted (an explicit flag wins). Prefer the env var for the password so it doesn't land in shell history or the process list:

export NEO4J_URI=bolt://localhost:7687
export NEO4J_PASSWORD=secret
cants --input ./my-ts-project --emit neo4j     # credentials picked up from the environment

--emit schema writes the machine-readable, version-stamped Neo4j schema (schema.json: node labels, relationships, properties, constraints, and indexes). It needs no project and is bundled in every release (as a wheel asset and a GitHub Release asset), so a consumer can validate producer/consumer compatibility without invoking the binary.

cants --emit schema                 # print to stdout
cants --emit schema --output ./out  # → ./out/schema.json

This project uses Bun as its toolchain.

bun install
bun run start -- --input /path/to/project   # run from source
bun run typecheck                            # type-check
bun test                                     # tests (the Neo4j bolt test is opt-in; see below)
bun run test:container                       # Neo4j bolt tests — needs Docker/Podman (opt-in)
bun run gen:schema                           # regenerate schema.neo4j.json
bun run gen:readme                           # regenerate the cants --help block above

Apache 2.0 — see LICENSE.